Principal’s Message

Dear Parents, Staff, Students and Friends of WIS,

West Island School Value

Compassion: Service and action at school, locally and globally

We live as a community by our 5 C’s which each represent values WIS holds dear. Turning those C’s into a genuine living reality within WIS is important to us.

This week we saw compassion in action. We came together as a school to donate funds for Jonathan Law, our lifeguard who has been with us at WIS for five years and given much to the community.

Jonathan is currently in hospital in intensive care. His family have suffered the tragedy of also having their younger son in serious condition in the last year, and consequently have needed to give up their jobs to look after him.

I have felt humbled by the response to supporting Jonathan and his family arising from both teaching and support staff who were quick to ask ‘What can I do to help?’ and by students who understand the importance of us working with one another as a community and seeing that compassion is an active force for good.

So, during the week students donated at the Star Search heats held by the Creative Arts Faculty which was overseen by upper school student, Erica Stanley and on Wednesday, students were asked to consider swimming in Jonathan’s cause during lunchtime and to donate funds through this event.

The PE faculty have been instrumental in thinking of ideas to aid and help, in particular Blake Harding has organised the Swimathon so that as many students as possible could be part of giving. Students have seen firsthand that we can make a difference to a family in need. Students, parents and staff turned out in force to swim and to support through donations. This is one of the many things which truly makes WIS a great school.

In all to date, we have raised approximately $150,000 from these events and approximately $170,000 in total; an incredible amount. We will liaise with the family as to how best this money can be used to aid them currently with travel to and from hospital, hospital costs as well as day-to-day living expenses which they need our support to cover while they are in this difficult situation.

Please note we are stopping donations and fund raising from March 1st. We will continue to liaise with the family to see if further support is needed at a later date.

On Wednesday evening, I was pleased to be able to attend a student produced a musical “The Beat’ – a first for WIS. What is extraordinary is that the students have written, scripted, composed musically, choreographed, directed and acted in it with very little staff support, though plenty evidence of inspiration from the teachers in terms of dramatic and musical form was visible throughout. This is a quite extraordinary achievement for them as young adults and one I felt proud to witness. It sets a new bar for us as a school and I am certain we will see Maddie Bowers (leader, writer and director) Patrick McCool (director), Carrie Neilson (choreographer) and Caspar Lam (composer) go far in their careers beyond school within the Arts.

Yours,
Jane